


reluctantly crouched at the starting line

by heterocosmica



Series: Happy Snape family AU [2]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alice is like a more confident Neville, At least in this AU, Gen, Happy Snape Family AU, Hufflepuff Severus Snape, Mentions of Violence, Romani Eileen Prince, Romani Severus Snape, everyone else is sorted the way they were in the books
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-03
Updated: 2018-10-03
Packaged: 2019-07-24 14:17:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,911
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16176794
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/heterocosmica/pseuds/heterocosmica
Summary: September 1st 1971*Severus Snape boards the train to Hogwarts for the first time.





	reluctantly crouched at the starting line

**Author's Note:**

> Part of the Happy Snape family AU. This is the first piece of writing I'm publishing as a part of this AU but there will certainly be more (though most likely not in chronological order, I tried, it just wasn't working for me). If you want to check out more of this AU (including the edits) check out my [tumblr tag for it](http://heterocosmica.tumblr.com/tagged/snape-family). Hope you have as much fun with this as I am!
> 
> *
> 
> comments on my fics are always moderated, hate will not be published, if you don't like Snape just don't read this

It's September 1st and he's finally going to a school where he wouldn't have to hide from Dicky McNally every day after class. School where, if his mother is to be believed, he can eat sweets every day. School where he could learn magic and really become someone.

When he sees the Evans family at the station, though, his stomach rolls and he makes a face. It's stupid, really. He knew Lily would be attending Hogwarts, same as him, but he'd also been hoping for a fresh start. A part of him wanted the chance at being someone new, someone different; and now all of that wasn't a possibility anymore. There was someone who knew him here so all those second chances were gone. He could only hope Lily would be merciful and ignore him as much as possible.

As he looks at them, Petunia Evans catches his eye, thirteen year old and proud with her head held high like they don’t come from the same part of town. She lifts her eyebrows in question and he flinches, blushing a bit and looking away. His mother puts a gentle hand on his shoulder and he looks up with a smile. 

“You’ll be fine now muro shavo.” She says and he relaxes a bit. 

Turning to the train, he pulls his luggage a bit closer before turning back to his mother for one last moment of childish insecurity. 

“You’ll write to me, right? And Da and Sanela, too?”

His mother smiles her calm, gentle smile, leans down a little closer to look him straight in the eye, and puts a rough hand on his cheek. 

“Yes, muro shavo, we’ll all write. And you’ll write to your sister too, right?” 

He gives an enthusiastic nod and she laughs, kissing him on the forehead and nudging him towards the train. 

“Time to go now. You be good.”

*

He changes into his robes before he even thinks about looking for a seat, pulling his tattered jeans off in the cramped train bathroom and tugging on the brand new black school robes. He knows his parents saved for months so he’d be able to wear them and they’re the nicest piece of clothing he has so he’s eager to show them off, eager to feel the expensive fabric on his skin. Before leaving the bathroom, he looks in the mirror and it strikes him. He’s a wizard now.

He slips into a compartment full of other first years, squeezes in between a gentle looking girl who introduces herself as Alice and the window, tries to make himself as small and quiet as possible. Alice seems to understand and soon, they're a silent little corner all on their own. 

Warmth radiates off of Alice’s side and the tips of her fingers skim his sleeve every once in a while, but the ride is mostly just long and boring. 

When the lady with a trolley full of sweets comes by, neither he nor Alice move. They both watch, though, as the rest of their ragtag group stand up to get their hands on an obscene amount of candy in unrestrained glee. 

As everyone sits back down, Alice pulls out a bar of baking chocolate. Slips half of it into his hand without even looking at him. Stuffs the rest in her mouth in one go and lets it melt. He looks at her with big eyes full of awe before pushing the piece of chocolate back into her hand. After all, baking chocolate has always felt more like a punishment than a sweet. Still, he whispers a soft “Thank you.” Not taking his eyes off her face.

He spends the entire ride sitting there, silently trying to judge what kind of people surround him. He's smart enough to know that you don't share with gadjo until you see what kind of people they are so he says nothing when they hear the commotion from the compartment next to theirs. 

It's quickly followed by yelling and a few small bangs.

A boy who'd popped off to the bathroom shortly before the whole thing started slips back in with a gleeful look on his face, talking about hexing some Potter boy for slagging off Slytherin. There’s something in the boy’s eyes. Something he’s seen in Dicky’s eyes before, after that one time he’d knocked one of Michael’s teeth out and sent him to his Ma with a shiner covering half of his face. That joy in causing pain. 

Severus takes a deep breath and decides to stay away from whoever that Potter kid is as well as this Avery bloke chuckling to himself in their suddenly much quieter compartment.

*

After the gaggle of first years pours out of the compartment, Severus firmly embedding himself in the middle of the crowd and staying relatively close to Alice, the tallest man he'd ever seen yells out for them to gather. 

He flinches, taking half a step to position himself in front of Alice, before stopping himself. 

He knows what hulking men with booming voices do, has seen it often enough around his neighbourhood, and while his Da never raises his voice in the house, he's seen what even good, kind men can do when angry. In fact, after seeing the fight his Da had with Artie Simmons after Artie called Severus and Sanela “filthy little gypsy bastards”, Severus knows that even when good men fight for good reasons, they can still do horrible things.

This man, calling himself Hagrid, ushers them into boats docked at the edge of a body of water that looks more like a bottomless pit of darkness than a lake this late in the evening. He feels Alice holding onto his shoulder as she takes the first tentative step into one of the boats. It's all the prompting he needs to follow her in. 

As he takes a seat next to her, he chances a glance at her profile and thinks _she's going to be a Gryffindor_.

Lily pushes through the crowd and hops into their boat, not even noticing two boys following her closely. One of them is a cocky kid with messy hair and glasses, walking like the very ground he’s walking on ought to be grateful he’s deigning it with his steps. The other walks with his head high, nose in the air and somehow taking up more space than should be possible for an eleven year old. For a moment, Severus thinks this must be what Petunia is going for when she looks down her nose at all of them like she’s miles above. When she spends weeks swiping money here and there just so she could buy fabric to make herself a dress to the latest fashion. When she smears on that lipstick he knows she stole from old Mrs. Mikaelson or spends hours putting her hair up just so. 

He glances at Lily for a brief moment, wondering how she would react if she knew what he’s thinking about. If she would care that him and Michael sometimes join those older boys who follow her sister around. If she would be mad if she knew he was there when Mr. Winston who’s got a shop near the park grabbed Petunia’s arm and pulled her closer, crowding her up against the shop counter, and said “No man’s gon’ wan' ta fuck you if ya don’t smile, Tuney. Come on, Tuney, give us a smile. Lose the sour face, dearie, be a good girl.” Would she be mad that he did nothing?

As she comes closer to take her seat, she leans towards him and Alice and whispers:

“What do you think a good house is?”

It's obvious that the boys behind her are quite annoyed that Lily didn't choose to share with the group so Severus doesn't even attempt to answer, but Alice puts a soft hand on Lily's and says with a smile:

“All houses are good, I don't think it really matters where you end up.”

At hearing that, the messy haired boy scoffs, runs a hand through his hair, and says.

“I know I’d rather leave and live as a silly Muggle than be in Slytherin.”

Severus tries to shrink in his seat as much as possible while Lily turns to the messy haired boy and says snidely.

“I wasn't asking you, Potter. In fact, from everything I've heard you say today, I know the only  
house that must be shite is the one you're in.”

 _Yes_ , he thinks, _she’d be mad._

Thankfully, the boats start moving on their own before their argument really gets heated and the five of them end up sailing in silence. As they step out of the boat on the other side of the lake, Alice gives him a look behind the boys’ back and they both do their hardest to hold back their smiles.

*

He gets separated from Alice as everybody crowds into a small room to wait for the sorting. 

The ghosts come and go but they don’t really capture his attention. Ghosts would have to wait for a moment when his hands are not shaking and he’s not frantically trying to figure out how the rest of his night will go.

Standing in a corner, he looks around and listens carefully to what the kids around him are saying. In less than five minutes, he realises it's a bad time to be a Slytherin. He hears whispers of a brewing war, something about a You-Know-Who (he really doesn't and he doesn't think he wants to either) and a Slytherin versus Gryffindor feud. It's easy to come to the conclusion that he's not going to have a good time if he ends up in either of those. 

His heart drops a bit and he thinks about his mother, so proud to have been a Slytherin. His strong, brilliant, hard working mother. He wonders if she would be disappointed if he's not in Slytherin. He knows his mother loves him, though. So when they line up waiting to try on that dusty looking hat, he firmly decides to do anything in his power to avoid both Gryffindor and Slytherin. Sometimes, it’s just better to stay on your own side and out of people’s minds.

The tall, hard looking woman reads out their names and one by one the people in front of him get sorted. The closer he steps to the hat, the more its yelling makes him twitch.

When he takes his seat and the hat is put on his head, he clenches his eyes shut, a mantra repeating in his head “please don't put me in Slytherin or Gryffindor”. The hat laughs inside his head, mean and condescending, and says “ _well if that's what you want boy then I guess I ought to put you in **Hufflepuff**_ ”.

The word “Hufflepuff” rings out and then there's applause and a table full of smiling upturned faces staring at him and he's never felt more sure of his choices. Taking his seat, he chances a glance at the Gryffindor table searching for Alice and Lily. When his eyes find them, they're sitting together, Lily talking to some older girl sitting close by. Alice, however, meets his eyes and gives him the thumbs up with a bright smile.

And yes, he finds out that night that they do get to have sweets every day. He wonders why he ever doubted his mother in the first place.

**Author's Note:**

> Welcoming any sort of feedback!


End file.
